In the construction and operation of various types of furnaces or heating chambers, the inner walls, doors, flues, dampers and roof are typically lined with some type of refractory material or materials, which are capable of withstanding the operating temperatures within the furnace. It has been known to use folded, ceramic fibrous blanket material in lining such furnaces or heat chambers. In such applications, the folded blanket material is secured under elastic compression to prevent separation of the material at the folds due to shrinkage of the material which occurs above a certain temperature.
Several systems for securing the folded ceramic fibrous blanket material (modules) to a walled surface have been developed. In this respect, U.S. Pat. No. 4,411,621 to Miller discloses a furnace wall construction wherein interleaved mats of fibrous insulating material are supported on an expanded sheet metal member by elongated metal rods which are positioned within the folds of the interleaved mats adjacent the closed ends thereof. The metal rods are secured to the expanded metal member by wire ties. As will be appreciated, construction of a wall is labor intensive, generally requiring two workman to mount the modules to the expanded metal member. Moreover, repair of such a wall is time consuming in that each mounting wire tie must be cut to release the mounting rods, then later replaced when a new module is inserted. Still further, such construction requires the use of expanded metal or perforated plate as a support surface. In this respect, it cannot be utilized with flat plates or sheets typically found in many existing furnace structures.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,620 discloses an advance in heat chamber linings wherein the modules of fibrous blanket material are mounted on elongated module rods, the ends of which engage and are supported in recesses formed in generally serrated hanger rods. The module rods are held in the recess by the elastic compressive forces exerted on the rods by the modules. While such an arrangement eliminates the necessity of two workman for installation, the specific design of the mounting hangers requires fairly accurate spacing of the hanger rods to insure engagement with the ends of the module rods. Further, such an arrangement limits the compression of the modules to stepped increments established by the spacing of the recesses formed in the serrated hanger rods.
The present invention overcomes these and other problems and provides a wall for a furnace or a heat chamber, and a mounting assembly for mounting fibrous blanket material to a wall, which is adjustable in minute increments, which eliminates heat transferred along a generally continuous rod and which is simple, economical and easy to fabricate and install.